Expenditure on health and high care residential aged care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people amounted to $2,976 million in 2006-07, or 3.1% of national expenditure on health and high care residential aged care. In 2006-07, the average expenditure per person on health and high care residential aged care was $5,696 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. For non-Indigenous people, the average expenditure per person was $4,557. The ratio of Indigenous to non-Indigenous expenditure per person was 1.25. For the Australian Government schemes of Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), total benefits paid per Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person were 59% of the amount spent on non-Indigenous people. Expenditure on health for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people 2006-07 provides policy makers and program managers with detailed information for further analysis.

Notes

Previous versions of files that have been updated or corrected are presented below.

(25 March 2010) This version of Expenditure on health for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, 2006-07 differs from the original (published 18 December 2009) in that it corrects estimates for expenditure on high care residential aged care services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The total expenditure on high care residential aged care services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in 2006-07 was $66.7 million. The ratio for health and high care residential aged care expenditure for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to non-Indigenous people is 1.25.The areas of expenditure contributing to total high care residential aged care services expenditure for Indigenous people in 2006-07 were: Australian Government subsidies (41.4%); resident copayments (34.3%); supplements (12.6%); and flexible aged care (11.7%). The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander high care residential aged care expenditure estimate now includes expenditure on the ‘Australian Government Flexible Aged Care Program’. The tables and commentary included in the report which include, or refer to, high care residential aged care expenditure have been amended to reflect the revised estimates.